Fossil plant remains at Rano Raraku, Easter Island’s statue quarry: evidence for past elevated lake level and ancient Polynesian agriculture

Horrocks, Mark; Baisden, W. Troy; Flenley, J. R.; Feek, D.; Nualart, Lilian González; Haoa-Cardinali, S.; Gorman, T. Edmunds

doi:10.1007/s10933-012-9643-0

Cited by 50 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Indeed, fires persisted in Raraku and the first signs of cultivation appeared around 1,400 CE (Horrocks et al, 2012a). A second deforestation event, linked to an increase in evidence for burning, took place in Raraku by 1,450 CE and palm forests disappeared from the catchment by 1,500 CE .…”

Section: Climatic and Ecological Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

et al. 2018

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This paper reviews the existing hypotheses concerning the cultural shift from the Ancient Cult (AC) to the Birdman Cult (BC) that occurred on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) during the last millennium and introduces a holistic new hypothesis called CLAFS (Climate-Landscape-Anthropogenic Feedbacks and Synergies), which considers a variety of potential drivers of cultural change and their interactions. The CLAFS hypothesis can be tested with future paleoecological studies on new sedimentary sequences such as the new continuous and coherent record encompassing the last millennium from Rano Kao (KAO08-03) using a combination of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), charcoal, and fecal lipid analyses, at decadal to multidecadal resolution. The Kao record should be compared with other continuous records of the last millennium available for the two other freshwater bodies of the island, Rano Aroi and Rano Raraku, to obtain an island-wide perspective of spatio-temporal deforestation patterns in relation to climatic shifts and human activities. The CLAFS hypothesis predicts that the shift from the AC to the BC was associated with the drying out and deforestation of Rano Raraku (the center of the AC) by ∼1,570 CE, followed by human migration to Rano Kao (the social center of the BC), where freshwater and forests were still available. Under the CLAFS scenario, this migration would have occurred by ∼1,600 CE. Findings to the contrary would require modification and refinement, or outright rejection, of the CLAFS hypothesis and the consideration of alternate hypotheses compatible with new paleoecological evidence. Regardless the final results, archeological evidence will be required to link climatic and ecological events with cultural developments.

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Section: Climatic and Ecological Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Raraku, light-colored areas indicate the sedimentary gaps with no pollen data. Red arrows indicate the first evidence of cultivation according to Horrocks et al (2012aHorrocks et al ( , 2015. The European contact (EC) is indicated by a dotted blue line.…”

Section: Climatic and Ecological Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

et al. 2018

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“…Introduced plants for subsistence purposes are mainly taro, sweet potato, and yam, but also ti, bananas, and sugarcane, and these are thought to have been cultivated in prehistoric times. Evidence for this comes from ethnohistorical accounts (e.g., M etraux, 1940;Roggeveen, 1908), surveys of the current flora (Flenley, 1993) and from microfossils in bioarchaeological and paleoecological studies (e.g., Dudgeon & Tromp, 2014;Horrocks et al, 2012aHorrocks et al, , 2012bHorrocks & Wozniak, 2008). Archaeological evidence documents extensive use of lithic mulch in small-scale rock gardens and planting enclosures (manavai) that served to increase soil nutrients, regulate soil conditions, and offset the effects of aridity and strong winds (AyalaBradford, Lipo, & Hunt, 2005;Ladefoged et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the growing conditions for the archaeological totora reed are unknown, it is observed today growing in moist soils around the fringe of freshwater crater lakes on Rapa Nui (e.g., Rano Raraku, Rano Kau, Rano Aroi, and Rano Aroi Iti; Horrocks et al, 2012aHorrocks et al, , 2012bHorrocks et al, , 2013Horrocks et al, , 2015. There is evidence for extensive cultivated rock gardens on the slopes adjacent to those lakes (e.g., Rano…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coexistence of totora and agricultural crops (e.g., taro, sweet potato, and yam) has been documented in sediment cores taken adjacent to Rano Raraku and Rano Kau (Horrocks et al, 2012a(Horrocks et al, , 2012b. Since modern totora commonly grow in wet soils and there is paleobotanical evidence for the coexistence of totora and taro, sweet potato and yam, we assume that all of these plants grew under similar moist soil conditions.…”

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Diet of the Prehistoric Population of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) Shows Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Popp¹,

Jarman²,

Larsen³

et al. 2017

Geological Society of America Abstracts With Programs

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Objectives: The Rapa Nui "ecocide" narrative questions whether the prehistoric population caused an avoidable ecological disaster through rapid deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources. The objective of this study was to characterize prehistoric human diets to shed light on human adaptability and land use in an island environment with limited resources. Materials and methods:Materials for this study included human, faunal, and botanical remains from the archaeological sites Anakena and Ahu Tepeu on Rapa Nui, dating from c. 1400 AD to the historic period, and modern reference material. We used bulk carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses and amino acid compound specific isotope analyses (AA-CSIA) of collagen isolated from prehistoric human and faunal bone, to assess the use of marine versus terrestrial resources and to investigate the underlying baseline values. Similar isotope analyses of archaeological and modern botanical and marine samples were used to characterize the local environment.Results: Results of carbon and nitrogen AA-CSIA independently show that around half the protein in diets from the humans measured came from marine sources; markedly higher than previous estimates. We also observed higher d | I N T R O D U C T I O NRapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is frequently used as an exemplar of human social competition and an avoidable ecological disaster, in which rapid destruction of the native palm forest had devastating consequences for the island's environment and human population (e.g., Diamond, 2005). Recent archaeological research has brought such Malthusian claims into question: the arrival of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) shortly after the island's colonization may have extensively contributed to the palm forest's demise (Hunt, 2007) and with the use of fire the island was transformed into an agricultural landscape (Hunt & Lipo, 2006).Revised chronologies indicate settlement of Rapa Nui centuries later than previously supposed, with evidence for a more balanced use of the environment and a greater degree of human adaptability to a changing ecosystem than the "ecocide" model purports (Hunt & Lipo, 2006;Stevenson et al., 2015). Knowing past diets is crucial for understanding the impacts of human occupation on Rapa Nui. Despite the intrinsic connection between human behavior and the utilization of natural resources in this small and ecologically-constrained island environment, prehistoric diets of the native islanders are still debated and poorly understood. Dietary evidence is spatially and temporally scattered, and its quality is affected by unfavorable preservation and taphonomic transformations; thus diet has been inferred from stable isotopic compositions.Rapa Nui is a small (171 km 2 ), remote volcanic island located in the south-eastern Pacific initially colonized in the early 13 th century AD (Hunt & Lipo, 2006). Polynesian settlers introduced chicken (Gallus gallus) and the Pacific rat, but the island has no endemic mammals or land birds (Klemmer & Zizka, 1993). Int...

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Diet of the prehistoric population of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) shows environmental adaptation and resilience

Jarman

Larsen²,

Hunt

et al. 2017

American J Phys Anthropol

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ObjectivesThe Rapa Nui “ecocide” narrative questions whether the prehistoric population caused an avoidable ecological disaster through rapid deforestation and over‐exploitation of natural resources. The objective of this study was to characterize prehistoric human diets to shed light on human adaptability and land use in an island environment with limited resources.Materials and methodsMaterials for this study included human, faunal, and botanical remains from the archaeological sites Anakena and Ahu Tepeu on Rapa Nui, dating from c. 1400 AD to the historic period, and modern reference material. We used bulk carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses and amino acid compound specific isotope analyses (AA‐CSIA) of collagen isolated from prehistoric human and faunal bone, to assess the use of marine versus terrestrial resources and to investigate the underlying baseline values. Similar isotope analyses of archaeological and modern botanical and marine samples were used to characterize the local environment.ResultsResults of carbon and nitrogen AA‐CSIA independently show that around half the protein in diets from the humans measured came from marine sources; markedly higher than previous estimates. We also observed higher δ15N values in human collagen than could be expected from the local environment.DiscussionOur results suggest highly elevated δ15N values could only have come from consumption of crops grown in substantially manipulated soils. These findings strongly suggest that the prehistoric population adapted and exhibited astute environmental awareness in a harsh environment with nutrient poor soils. Our results also have implications for evaluating marine reservoir corrections of radiocarbon dates.

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Fossil plant remains at Rano Raraku, Easter Island’s statue quarry: evidence for past elevated lake level and ancient Polynesian agriculture

Cited by 50 publications

References 29 publications

CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

CLAFS, a Holistic Climatic-Ecological-Anthropogenic Hypothesis on Easter Island's Deforestation and Cultural Change: Proposals and Testing Prospects

Diet of the Prehistoric Population of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) Shows Environmental Adaptation and Resilience

Diet of the prehistoric population of Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) shows environmental adaptation and resilience

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